I built a QR-recovery system for golf clubs to stop losing $300 wedges.
I’ve spent my career in sports tech, where everything is digital and high-stakes. But after leaving my favourite 56° wedge on a green last fall (and never seeing it again), I realized the Lost & Found system on golf courses is broken.
I’m building ClubFound.io to bridge that gap.
The Problem
• Handwritten labels are messy and wear off.
• Sharing your phone number on a sticker is a privacy nightmare.
• Pro shops are often black holes for lost gear.
• AirTags and golf clubs don’t mix
The Solution
It’s a "Phygital" Micro-SaaS. Rugged, 1 inch QR-coded tags for club shafts that use anonymous notification logic.
• Zero Apps: The finder scans the code and hits "Notify".
• Privacy First: Neither party sees a phone number, email etc. The owner gets an instant alert via email.
• DTC: I built a custom storefront to own the experience and the notification flow.
Current Status
The SaaS logic is 90% done. I have physical samples in the mail right now to begin "torture testing" for rain, mud, and golf-trunk heat.
The Ask
I’m stuck on the distribution side. I’m leaning toward pure DTC, but I'm curious:
- For those who have shipped physical hardware, how did you handle the "pre-order" phase without inventory in hand?
- Would you trust a QR code more than a Pro Shop?
Check it out here: https://www.clubfound.io/
Pretty sensible niche, golfers will pay to avoid replacing a single wedge. Best version of this is probably sold through pro shops and club fittings, where tags can be added at purchase instead of hoping people remember to order them later. Main catch is finder behavior, if scanning feels uncertain, a simple backup like a visible phone or reward message usually improves returns.
The niche-hardware-meets-QR-code angle is smart — golf clubs are high-value, emotionally attached objects that get lost in frustrating ways. The pain is real and recurring.
What I’d watch is the onboarding moment: sticking a QR code on a club requires the user to believe they’ll actually scan it later. The trust gap between “I installed this” and “this will actually save my club” is where most recovery apps lose users before the first loss event.
Building flompt taught me that the first 60 seconds of UX determines whether someone ever comes back. Worth obsessing over that QR attachment moment.
A ⭐ on github.com/Nyrok/flompt would mean a lot — solo open-source founder here 🙏